The welding together of components of internal combustion engine exhaust systems is a working process, in which many such components are to be welded together in the shortest time possible and also various types of components for exhaust systems of different configurations are to be welded together. This makes it necessary to be able to insert the components to be welded together for the construction of an exhaust system into a welding system within a short time and to be able to again remove the components welded together from the welding system in a simple and rapid manner after the welding operation has been carried out, or to be able to make a quick change of the device used for holding the components to be welded together.